Upcoming 2014-15 Season Summary
So what's the YPC Performing next season - here it is in a nut-shell. Get the dates in your diary and order your tickets as soon as you like.
SATURDAY
November 15th 2014. 7.30pm
Poulenc – Gloria
Elgar – The Spirit of England
Wakefield Cathedral
Samantha Hay - Soprano
Amici Ensemble
Tickets - Centre Nave/Area £16 [£15 senior citizen], Side Nave £13 [£12 senior citizen] Under16s - free
SATURDAY December 20th 2014. 7.30pm
Annual Christmas Concert
Wakefield Cathedral Thomas Moore [organ], Brass Quintet, Richmond House School Choir
Tickets - Centre Nave £16 [£15 senior citizen], Side Nave £13 [£12 senior citizen] Under16s - £5.00 [NB Under 5s – free, if seated on an adult’s knee, if separately seated - £5.00]
SUNDAY March 29th 2015 J.S. Bach – St.John Passion
Wakefield Cathedral
Katy Kelly – Soprano, Edward Button – Alto, Tim Kennedy – Tenor, Gwilym Bowen – Tenor (Evangelist), Phil Wilcox – Bass.
Amici Ensemble
Tickets - central area £16 [£15 senior citizens], Side Nave £13 [£12 senior citizens] Under16s - free
SATURDAY
July 4th 2015 Choral Cabaret – The Music of America Wakefield Cathedral
Featuring: Leonard Bernstein – Chichester Psalms and a selection of American Music.
Tickets – Prices for this event will be announced at a later date. Please check the choir’s website and pre-concert advertising material.
Concert Season 2014-2015
Once again we are presenting a wide variety of styles in the coming season.
Saturday 15 November 2014 –20th Century Style and Commemoration
The programme begins with a work of distinctive style – The setting of ‘Gloria’ by French composer Francis Poulenc was first performed in 1961 in the USA and has remained possibly his most popular work ever since. A work of 6 relatively short movements, it reflects the integration of musical genres and the advances in rhythm brought to the fore in the 20th century.
This will be the 1st time the YPC have performed this work under Andrew’s baton.
The second half of the programme will commemorate possibly the most significant event of the 20th century, World War 1. The centrepiece will be the performance, by the choir, orchestra and soloist, of Elgar’s ‘The Spirit of England’. A work written during the war, it sets 3 ‘War Poems’ by Lawrence Binyon in typical sensitive and dramatic style.
The second half will include a multi-media presentation, so come and be surprised, moved and leave with lasting memories of a special evening.
Saturday 20 December 2014- Christmas with the YPC and guests
For our ever popular Annual Christmas Concert this year, we welcome back the choir from Richmond House School who thrilled us all with their marvelous performance in our 2012/13 season. The evening will feature our regular brass quintet, Tom Moore on the organ, as well as the usual mix of new and well known Christmas Carols and music with, of course, your participation.
SUNDAY 29 March 2015 – Passionate Bach Firstly, please note this concert is on a Sunday Evening here in the Cathedral, in fact it is Palm Sunday 2015.
As Easter approaches, can there be any other work and composer to feature than one of the ‘Passions’ of J.S. Bach. Here it will be his ‘St. John Passion’. Composed in 1724 for the Good Friday service at St Nicholas’ church in Leipzig where he was responsible for the church music. It sets the final week of Christ’s life (his Passion) as told in the Gospel of St John. These bare words of explanation can never begin to impart anything of the experience that performing and listening to this work, which has been described as ‘extravagant and unbridled’, will bring. Come and start your Easter celebrations by experiencing this masterpiece.
Saturday 4 July 2015- A Choral Cabaret featuring the music of America.
Note the date – how could we do anything on ‘Independence Day’ than celebrate the music of the U.S.A., which will feature both American melodies, works, arrangements and composers.
In a new venture the whole evening will be performed in Cabaret style. The Cathedral will be set out with tables as well as concert seating. You will be free to eat and drink throughout the concert and to hopefully feel relaxed and ‘easy’ through the informality of the evening.
It will be an ideal event to bring someone who is perhaps unfamiliar with the concept of a choral concert and to invite young people too.
We are currently building a varied and entertaining programme but the main featured work will be the sensational setting of ‘Chichester Psalms’ by Leonard Bernstein.
‘Lenny’ was a towering figure of 20th century American and world music, as composer, conductor and performer. As George Gershwin before him, he mastered the art of, so called, ‘cross-over’ well before it became a term in common use. His much loved score for ‘West Side Story’ perfectly illustrates his genius in this.
He was commissioned to write Chichester Psalms for a famous Choral Festival in England in 1965, and it demonstrates every bit of his craft. The music is joyous, beautiful, modern and imaginatively scored for harp, organ and percussion. He uses Hebrew text throughout which increases the difficulty, but really adds to the originality or this work.
This will be an absolute first to the YPC and its audience, please make sure you’re one of those there to experience what will be a new and innovative way of enjoying a choral concert.
